WHAT seemed like a simple task of picking up a hire car, ended up driving Laura Griggs round the bend and ruining the first day of her holiday.

Laura, aged 28, from Kings Heath, thought she and her husband, Darren, would have no problem jumping into their hired Ford KA on arrival at Ibiza airport and heading off for their four-day break on the Spanish holiday island.

Instead they were forced to fork out 70 Euros – more than £50 – for a round-trip to their accommodation and back to the airport, when they should have been enjoying their first day in the sun. Laura says: “The whole experience left me out of pocket and ruined the first 24 hours of my holiday. I am hopping mad.”

Laura, who works as an account director for a Birmingham public relations agency, says she cancelled the original car hire booking she had made for their stay after receiving an email from holiday company Thomson which offered details of car hire specialist Holiday Autos.

She explains: “We had already arranged car hire ourselves, but not paid a deposit, so we decided to cancel this and go with a company recommended by a brand we trusted.

“Having paid in full in advance, which was a stipulation of the booking, we were confident that we would have no problems securing our car which we could enjoy for our entire holiday.”

Their problems started, however, when they discovered that their flight to Ibiza from Birmingham Airport was due to take off four hours late and they wouldn’t be arriving until the early hours.

When Laura called the number on her booking reservation, she got through to Holiday Autos’ partner company, Centauro, which explained its office at Ibiza Airport closed at 11pm and wouldn’t be re-opening until 7am the following day.

Laura says: “I was very unhappy to learn that a company who operates flights to and from Ibiza at all hours of the day and night did not recommend a 24 hour car hire company – like Hertz, for example, which had an open desk when we arrived at Ibiza Airport.

“As we were staying a considerable drive from the airport, I decided the best course of action would

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be simply to cancel my hire car, receive a refund and hope that I could hire a car from Hertz on arrival.

“But when I called Holiday Autos to try and arrange a refund, the customer services representative was incredibly unhelpful and became quite aggressive.

“He refused a refund, explaining it was ‘not their fault my flight was delayed’ and said the only thing I could do was get a taxi to my accommodation on arrival, then get another taxi back to the airport at 7am – bearing in mind I would only have had about two hours’ sleep at this point – or else they would give my car, which was already paid for, away to another customer!”

Eventually, Holiday Autos agreed to hold the car for Laura for the whole of the following day, but they were unwilling to compensate her for the hire time she had lost or the cost of her taxi fares.

Laura fumes: “The next day, picking up the car was also a total nightmare. On arrival at Ibiza Airport, we discovered that there was no Centauro desk in the airport.

“We had to wait nearly half an hour for a man to come and pick us up in a minibus, then drive us to their office a good five minutes away. We then spent close to an hour waiting in the hot, sweaty car hire office to collect the car.

“Suffice to say, it’s not how I’d envisioned spending the first day of my break.”

Laura says she was further angered when she spotted the small print of Thomson’s car hire agreement on her return home.

It stated: “We have not conducted any quality or other checks on your car rental arrangement.

“We have made no representations about the suitability of the car rental, products and services offered for sale through us and the inclusion or offering for sale of any such products or services through us does not constitute an express or implied endorsement or recommendation by us of products or services.”

Laura adds: “You could argue that I should have read the terms and conditions more thoroughly before I booked my car hire – believe me, I won’t make that mistake again – but the whole point is that customers are buying into something because a company they trust has advised them to.

“I think the concern they are showing for their customers is complete zero.

“Thomson have destroyed my trust and I even though I have travelled with them for many years, I don’t think I’ll be doing so again.”

A spokesman for Thomson said: “Thomsonfly is sorry to hear of Ms Griggs’ dissatisfaction.

“Thomsonfly offers a broker service for a number of third party car hire suppliers. Before a trip, Thomsonfly customers can receive an email providing information on the cheapest car hire quote from one of these car hire companies, as sourced by this broker service.

“In this instance, Ms Griggs received such an email alert, advertising a quote from Holiday Autos as the best value option for the destination and dates of travel. Holiday Autos is a separate company from Thomsonfly and its sister companies.

“As noted by Ms Griggs, Thomsonfly does explain that this broker service does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation for any particular car hire company.

“As a result, we feel that any complaint Ms Griggs has with the service provided by Holiday Autos needs to be taken up directly with the car hire company.”

A spokesperson for Holiday Autos apologised to Laura but said she had omitted to add her flight details to her booking.

She said: “Customer service is of paramount importance to Holiday Autos, so we apologise for the experience Ms Griggs had.

“When we chose the partner to book Ms Griggs’ car with we went with the one that would give us the best possible price based on the information she gave us.

“As the pick up time given by Ms Griggs was within normal opening hours, Holiday Autos sourced the cheapest car available from its range of suppliers but did not need to look for companies open 24 hours a day. Had the flight details been added, the car rental desk would have waited for the customers’ arrival.”

She added that Holiday Autos would not be offering Laura any compensation for her taxi fares or for the hire time she lost.

“As the customer informed Holiday Autos of her delay, as a gesture of goodwill Holiday Autos arranged for the rental to be picked up the next day.

“Usually, when cars are not picked up on the day they are booked they become available to other customers,” she said.